Stop Mass Deportation of Haitian-Descended Dominicans

Tuesday, January 27, a group of Dominicans hoping to enroll in DR government programs for immigrants were deported instead. When these programs were first announced, many feared they would be used to identify and discriminate against immigrants. Now, many worry that those fears are becoming reality. Please send appeals to Dominican Republic authorities urging them to prevent these human rights violations.

DOCUMENT – MASS DEPORTATION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

On 27 January, 51 people, including 30 Dominican-born children, some of their mothers and 14 other adults were deported without due process to Haiti from the Dominican Republic. More mass deportations of Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian migrants are feared.

On the morning of 27 January, two mini-buses transporting 30 children aged between seven and 13, all born in the Dominican Republic, accompanied by some of their mothers (7 Haitian women) and 14 other Haitian migrants were traveling with religious officials to San Juan de la Maguana in eastern Dominican Republic. Following a ruling issued by the Dominican Constitutional Court in 2013 that rendered tens of thousands of people of foreign descent stateless, the mothers intended to enroll the children in a naturalization scheme established by the Dominican government in May 2014 to regularize the situation of Dominican children of irregular migrants. The 14 other Haitian migrants sought to enroll in the National Regularization Plan for Foreigners with Irregular Migration Status, established in 2013 for undocumented migrants living in the Dominican Republic.

Around 20 kilometres before reaching San Juan de la Maguana, where the nearest offices that process enrollment for both naturalization and regularization processes are located, the mini-buses were stopped at a military checkpoint. The military officers denied the group access to the city for being “undocumented migrants”. Following negotiations with the religious officials, they were asked to obtain a pass at the office of the Migration Directorate in Elias Piña near the Haitian-Dominican border. Once they arrived at the Migration Directorate office, they were detained and accused of being illegal wanderers. The authorities ordered their immediate deportation to Haiti without giving them the opportunity to have their cases individually examined, and therefore be able to challenge the legality of their detention or appeal the decision.

Following pressure, in the evening the Dominican Ministry of Interior gave authorization to the whole group to re-enter the country. They were still on Haitian territory on the morning of 28 January. The 30 children are in a particular situation of vulnerability as they do not hold Haitian citizenship and remain stateless. �

Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:

Calling on the Dominican authorities to allow the group to enroll in the naturalization and regularization schemes according to their wishes;

Urging them not to use naturalization and regularization procedures to detect alleged undocumented migrants and to stop all deportations of similar measures against applicants in the naturalization and regularization schemes;

Urging them to fulfill their obligations under international law, which prohibit arbitrary and collective expulsions, and to ensure that all those facing removal from the Dominican Republic have their cases individually examined in a fair and transparent procedure, where they can challenge the authorities’ decisions and have their case reviewed.